Conquests in Eleventh-Century England: 1016, 1066

The cataclysmic conquests of the eleventh century are here set together for the first time.

The cataclysmic conquests of the eleventh century are here set together for the first time.

Eleventh-century England suffered two devastating conquests, each bringing the rule of a foreign king and the imposition of a new regime. Yet only the second event, the Norman Conquest of 1066, has been credited with the impact and influence of a permanent transformation. Half a century earlier, the Danish conquest of 1016 had nonetheless marked the painful culmination of decades of raiding and invasion - and more importantly, of centuries of England's conflict and cooperation with the Scandinavian world - and the Normans themselves were a part of that world. Without 1016, the conquest of 1066 could never have happened as it did: and yet disciplinary fragmentation in the study of eleventh-century England has ensured that a gulf separates the conquests in modern scholarship.
The essays in this volume offer multidisciplinary perspectives on a century of conquest: in politics, law, governance, and religion; in art, literature, economics, and culture; and in the lives and experiences of peoples in a changing, febrile, and hybrid society. Crucially, it moves beyond an insular perspective, placing England within its British, Scandinavian, and European contexts; and in reaching across conquests connects the tenth century and earlier with the twelfth century and beyond, seeing the continuities in England's Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, and Angevin elite cultureand rulership. The chapters break new ground in the documentary evidence and give fresh insights into the whole historical landscape, whilst fully engaging with the importance, influence, and effects of England's eleventh-centuryconquests, both separately and together.

LAURA ASHE is Professor of English Literature and Fellow and Tutor in English, Worcester College, Oxford; EMILY JOAN WARD is Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge.

Contributors: Timothy Bolton, Stephanie Mooers Christelow, Julia Crick, Sarah Foot, John Gillingham, Charles Insley, Catherine Karkov, Lois Lane, Benjamin Savill, Peter Sigurdson Lunga, Niels Lund, Rory Naismith, Bruce O'Brien, Rebecca Thomas, Elizabeth M. Tyler, Elisabeth van Houts, Emily Joan Ward.

Why 1016 Matters; or, The Politics of Memory and Identity in Cnut's kingdom - Charles Insley
Why Did Cnut Conquer England? - Niels Lund
Conquest and the Law - Bruce O'Brien
Cnut and William: A Comparison - Elisabeth M C van Houts
Currency and Conquest in Eleventh-Century England - Rory Naismith
Episcopal Exon? Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS 3500 and the Role of Bishops in the Domesday Survey - Lois Lane
Conquest and Manuscript Culture - Julia C Crick
Kings, Saints and Conquests - Sarah Foot
Cultures of Conquest: Warfare and Enslavement in Britain Before and After 1066 - John B Gillingham
Conquest and Material Culture - Catherine E. Karkov
Remapping Literary History: The Patronage of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Queens - Elizabeth M. Tyler
Queens and Demons: Women in English Royal Genealogies, c.1100-c.1223 - Peter Sigurdson Lunga
French Women in Early Norman England: The Case of Hawise of Bacqueville - Stephanie Mooers Christelow
English contact with the European mainland throughout the eleventh century - Timothy Bolton
The View from Wales: Anglo-Welsh Relations in the Time of England's Conquests - Rebecca Thomas
England and the Papacy Between Two Conquests: The Shadow of 'Reform' - Benjamin Savill
Child Kings and the Norman Conquest: Representations of Association and Succession - Emily Ward